I like the B & W. It has a lot of power to bring out the starkness. And I especially like the bluish cast over it. That's something I would have done had I thought of it. Should be simple in SilverEfex Pro.

What I like here is that intensity of color seems to begin erasing the line between earth and sky. Not entirely, but it makes that demarcation less certain -- almost like a mind altering experience. Disclaimer: I know nothing about art and less about drugs!

So I've never been one for the "vomit of colors everywhere" look, or the weird crops, but since this isn't my own image that I'm editing, I figured why not do something different? After messing around with the grad nd on the sky for a while, I just had to stick with the purple. Cheers.

There have been a lot of great edits of this photo. It's amazing to see different visions of what this photo can be and cool to receive input from people who I am sure are scattered across the globe. Thanks for the great response to this post!